Bato: Treasures of Tibet

Very cool billiards-type game. Bonus items and buffs with a nice story to follow along with. There is a skill requirement at the third section. You must score "Gold" level on each of the games in this section. I was unable to get past "Silver" level and repeated these levels many times. I was unable to proceed past that point.

Bato: Treasures of Tibet is a mobile app-like hybrid of a match-3 game and billiards. The objective is to match sliding stones, not by dragging and dropping them, but by putting your finger on your iphone screen and whacking them like a mobile snooker app. When a tile you shoot bounces off a matching colour stone, they're eliminated. Technical implementation here is a big fail, resolution is locked and it's a pillarboxed 4:3 aspect ratio, unacceptable for today. Perhaps they made this on an old CRT they found in a dumpster, from 1996? That's not going to help sell this to modern PC gamers. Novel idea for a match 3, but this is basically the same kind of thing you see on app stores and doesn't really belong as a fully fledged PC game. Of course it's from HH-Games who have a repeat pattern of trying to scam PC gamers into paying exhorbitant prices for free mobile apps just because they're on PC. While I couldn't find this on the app stores, it has the laughable cash grab price of $5 USD for the equivalent of mobile app trash. If you want to play this kind of game, there's hundreds of free ones on PC, and thousands on the app stores.

I would like to begin by stating that [i]Bato: Treasures of Tibet[/i] has changed my life. In all of my years of living and playing games, in all my years as a HomoSapiens, - and, more recently, a HomoLudens - I have never experience a game such as this one. Many years in the past, I played this game for the first time. When I discovered it again through the Steam Store, I was elated, and bought it instantly. For some reason, it was calling me. [i]Bato: Treasures of Tibet[/i] is great game. From the start, you are introduced to the game mechanics progressively and patiently, learning very quickly all the intricacies of this very complex game. Not long after, you start grasping every aspect of the board and you eyes and your hand work in symbiosis to predict movement and hit shots accordingly. The learning curve is well drawn out. The story is riveting. You are drawn into this world of Tibetan heritage, with it's high realism soundscapes and attention to visual detail. The immersion in this game is at the forefront of the gaming industry, truly setting new standards for what to expect from a AAA game. As you progress, the levels become increasingly complex, but never tedious. You…

"normal" difficulty is impossible to beat for me. It requires you to use "skip tokens" and even with them I cannot beat required 8 levels to gold on the last location...

https://youtu.be/JLto9l5rOQU Looking past the narrative framing that is woefully out of date, the actual token sliding version of match making pool works shockingly well.

If you like Knockback Pool and/or Rack & Slay, then this game is likely for you as well! Played great in 2026 on a 7840HS APU and very smooth mouse control of whichever you decide to aim and hit SAME COLORS WITH, it will drop in colored stones if you wind up short. Twists happen, no spoilers on it, but it won't be all straight shots. A gem for me!